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friendship lay in ruins. Since then,
Sino-Soviet relations have been on
ice.
Over the past two decades, the
Kremlin has openly criticized
aspects of Chinese policy as being
"divisive" and at variance with
socialist principies and standards.
For their part, the Chinese have
been equally cr itica! of the Soviet
model of socialism, labeling Mos–
cow "a renegarle capitalist re–
gime."
At its simplest, the central issue
of the Sino-Soviet quarrel is
who is
going to be in charge
in the com–
munist world.
The Soviet Union-the world's
largest country in land area–
claims ultimate supremacy within
the whole communist world . Chi–
na- t he world 's most populous
country- challenges this alleged
Soviet hegemony over the world
communist movement by offering
an alternative mother party.
This ideological struggle contin–
ues throughout the world to this
day. On both sides, the former
days of communist
solidarity are now but a dim mem–
ory.
Oeep Roots
Let's first look at the quarrel
through Soviet eyes.
Russia's "Chinaphobia" is by no
rneans a recent phenomenon, nor
solely a concoction of modern
Kremlin thinkers. The roots of
rnodern-day Sino-Soviet hostility
extend deep into the past.
Russians have never forgotten
Genghis Khan's Golden Horde, and
the Tatar-Mongol occupation of
Russia that lasted for sorne 300
years. Those black years of Mongol
dornination are deeply rooted in
Russia's historical rnemory. (The
Mongols, of course, were not Chi–
nese, but Russians make little dis–
tinction between the varied peoples
of the East.)
Diplomats in Moscow observe
that the R ussians are
obsessed
with
a fear of the East.
China's staggering population of
one thousand mil/ion
people is
more than
three times
that of the
Soviet Union! One Soviet acaderni-
cian once observed that, from Rus–
sia's viewpoint , their situation vis–
a-vis China would be analogous to
the United States having a thou–
sand million Mexican neighbors–
with nuclear weapons capacity!
This demographic fear of China
is indelibly ingrained in the Rus–
sian national consciousness. Jt is
instinctive and possibly exagger–
ated-but to Russians, it is very
real.
The Chinese suffer from the
counterpart of Russia's Sinopho–
bia- namely, Russophobia.
Invoking images of centuries
past, Peking writers graphically
picture the Russians as a restless
people, brooding just outside the
Great Wall.
For years, the Chinese feared
that their country might be sub–
jected to a Czechoslovak-type inva–
sion by the U.S.S.R . China conse–
quently developed a civil defense
system of immense scope. The Chi–
nese citizenry was encouraged to
" dig tunnels deep, store grain
everywhere and prepare for war."
The heated battle of words con–
tinues , with varying intensity,
across the long Sino-Soviet border.
Historie enmities are not easily
shaken off.
Border Controversy
Today's Sino-Soviet tensions are
partly an outgrowth of a long–
standing Chinese claim to vast
stretches of ter ritory now in Soviet
hands in the Far East and Central
Asia.
These territories were ceded to
Czar Alexander II of Russia by
China's weak Manchu emperors
more than a century ago. Peking
maintains that the 19th-century
territor ial agreements were "tme–
qual treaties" imposed on China by
a stronger Czarist Russia.
T be Krernlin strongly rejects
this claim, declaring that "the ter–
r itor ies which Peking qualifies as
so-called Chinese lands" were
"actually never part of the Chi–
nese state nor was their popula–
tion Chinese." The history of
the demarcation of the Sino–
Soviet border, Moscow asserts, was
"a long and complex one," and "the
fact remains that Russia never
seized any Chinese territory."
Even the extent of China's terri-
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